St. Paul daily globe., 1887-10-23
that perhaps he had caused this sacri.

lowed by his entire equipment, turned
his back on the village of RemouchampS
and took the route toward SpoumOnt
He had gone. perhaps, a hundred yards
beyond the houses. when all at once, in
the still. uncertain light of the dawn, he
perceived the figure of an animal
crOuching in the middle of the road: a
dog, of eourSe-and he continued to adj
vance. Ten steps further, however,
Ills HORSE REARED SUDDENLY,
stiffening itself like iron. and refused to
bulge.
''Haw cried the comte in furious
voice, 1T is our beast that comes to
meet us! Uncouple, my children. un-
couple and to the front; We'll return his
politeness by chasing him to the devil.
Harloup. harloup! and an ecu dor to
all at the tinish!'
The wolf. for the wolf it was, rose at
the cries of the comte and started away,
the dogs. disembarrassed of their
leaSheS, pouring like torrent into the
depth of the covert, the cavaliers fol-
lowing i'll their turn; and then could be
heard the thunder of the run and the
startling Sound of the trumpet calls re-
verberating from valley to valley.
And one thing you MAY be sure of, that
the spectacle was not without audience,
the entire population of the village hav-
ing taken the stand at the first call of
the trumpetS, upon the rocks of the
neighbOring cragS, fear forgotten in
reviewing the chase of their seigneur.
Contrary to the habits of its kind, and
the tactics it had hitherto pursued, the
animal seemed to travel in circle, con-
tenting himself with a radius of two or
three leagues anu returning constantly
to the FagneS of Remouchamps. Mean
while those who had an opportunity of
seeing him on the passage noticed that
in spite of the furious pursuit of which
he was the object, the beast gave signs
of neither fatigue or weakness, but ran
at the same gait, regularly and sus-
tanned, preserving vigorously the dis
tance of two or three meters that Sepn-
rated it from the pack.
The Stupefaction of the sight was
general. but the cavaliers who pricked
behind it appeared neither to notice it
or be affected by it, though it was
plain as
THE LONG HOURS PASSED
in this singular chase. that the dogs
were less ardent, and cried but at the
start or under the lash of the whippers-
in and the horses, white with foam,
less docile and travelling freely only
when going in the direction of the
stable. The Yisages of the huntsmen
were also OF a ghaStly pallOr, yet the
ferOciOuS rage that animated them was
unaDated, for they ceased not to drive
the spurs into the fiankS of their jaded
mounts. or to give to the breeze their
''yiew-halleoS."
Until II o'clock this tempest Of noise
continued to weary the echoes of the
ArdenneS gorgeS. and as the first stroke
of the hour sounded from the clock of
Remouchamps, the curious ones who
had remained Ell Sentinelle on the
Fagne of SpOumOnt heard the hunt
among the cliffs of the Ambleve valley
executing bruSque return, and driving
toward the east of FranchimOnt. it APP
peared to be traverSing rapidly the
heaths and thicketS toward the forest of
HertOgowalden. where the roaring of
the hoofS and the clamoring of the dogs
and trumpet calls became simple noises,
fainter and fainter-dying away in the
distance.
In the morning not trace of the hunt
could be seen, and not man OF dog of
the equipment had reappeared, neither
upon that morning nor the following
morning, nor the morning following
that, and in vain did the villagers
search or wait for them-they returned
no more!
The chaplain who vouched for these
facts and incidents of the supper table
declared that the sacrilegious VOW of
the Lord of RemOuchampS had been
eXacted from him, and that the wolf
SENT BY THE DEVIL
had led him straight to hell
The seigniory fell into forfeiture, of
course, but as the ruSticS were diSem-
barrassed of the beast that had ravaged
them so cruelty, as well as the eXactiOns
and eXceSseS of an unprincipled master,
they were soon cOnSOled.
In the meantime the month ran on,
and the following year, on the evening
of st. Hubert's Day, as the beadle and
bell ringer of the Church of Re-
mouchanlps was sounding the Angelus,
he heard a noise so strange and start
ling that he dropped the cords at the
second ringing and fell upon his knees.
1t was the noise of pack of hounds in
full cry in the marshy Fague that
dominated the valley. As he turned his
eyes in that direction the hair rose upon
his head, for the dogs of this hunt were
skeletons, pursuing skeleton wolf:
skeletons, also, the horses that galloped
behind them, clearing the bitches and
quagmires with prodigious nlmbleness,
the bones of the skeletons that bestrode
them cleaning and rattling in their
tattered clothes. And upon the should
ers of one of these riders who kept at
the head of the column the beadle per-
celved the remnant of mantle of GRIM
son velvet embroidered with gold,
which the year preceding he had so
much admired on the late COmte Jean.
And from the emaciated jaw bones Of
those spectral dogs came those deep
toned cries, while the mouths without
lips OF the phantomS sounded a fanfare
OH the trumpetS that made the great
trees tremble!
Mad with terror, the beadle had
scarcely strength enough to descend
and awaken the cure. But then, how
ever,
TIE APPARITION HAD VANISHED,
Though they could hear still and very
distinctly, the sound of the fantastic
hunt dying away in the distance, in
precisely the same way and in the same
direction it had originally plunged.
The following year and each succeed
ing year they came again, always on the
day of Saint Hubert, and under similar
conditions.
''It was an expiation," declared the
cure from his pulpit; ''an eXpiation that
God had willed to be made in this world
and manner, as an example to those
who showed themselves lacking in re-
spect to one of his blessed electr'
And according to the worthy father,
the impiOus comte was condemned to
pursue his wolf through mountains and
ya,e till that dreaded hour when, the
trumpet Of the Angel Gabriel should
summon the dead from the eternal sleep!
''Thanks, Pierre" l said to him, as he
terminated his strange recital; 81 regret
more than ever that quilted the Fagne
when l did. A stern chase of skeletons
isn't an everyday occurrence; besides,
nothing happened to the Beadle.'
''1he beadle, monsieur, was preserved
because he saw it from a holy place.
Since then more than twenty others
hnx- fri 10 tl,a la